Sales of Nintendo 3DS Lower Than Expected

Sales of the new Nintendo 3DS have fallen below expectations despite selling 3.61 million of the devices.

"Nintendo 3DS has not been selling as expected since the second week [of availability], and this is not just in the Japanese market but also in the United States and Europe, where no direct impact from the great earthquake has occurred," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told investors during an earnings briefing in Tokyo. "Therefore, we recognize that we are in a situation where we need to step up our efforts to further promote the spread of Nintendo 3Ds."

On Monday, Nintendo disclosed that it sold 3.61 million 3DS devices worldwide in March, falling short of the four million units it predicted would be sold. The company also said it expects to sell 16 million 3DS handhelds in the next year.

It's possible that the high cost of the 3DS has been a deterrent for some gamers. Priced at $250, the 3DS is the most expensive handheld Nintendo has ever produced.

Regardless, Nintendo projects that its profits will soar by 42 percent this year. The company forecasts that its net profit will hit 110 billion yen ($1.3 billion) in the one-year period spanning from March 2011 to March 2012. In the fiscal year Nintendo just closed out, the company's profits slumped 66.1 percent, down to 77.6 billion yen ($942 million).

Nintendo also confirmed Monday that it will show off a Wii successor this summer at the E3 Expo in Los Angeles, to be released in 2012.

Leslie Horn joined the PCMag team as a news reporter in the fall of 2010. She covers a wide range of topics from digital media to the latest Apple rumor. After graduating with a degree in Magazine Journalism from the University of Missouri, she wrote for Out & About, a travel guide in coastal Maine. One of her favorite reporting experiences was covering the 2008 Olympics from Beijing. She travels every chance she gets, and recently spent time backpacking along the coast of Brazil. Though she...
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